floriography [ stories five ]

if we have each other || rewrite

[ i still love this concept so much and i've had ideas on how to expand it but parts of it are kinda eh

⚠️- language, mentions drugs and alcohol, being a teen parent, etc

stay safe,
lew. ]

———————

Telling his mom had been the worst part.

He'd sat stone-faced through Aubrey telling her brother and her parents, fumbled his way through telling his brother. But when he faced his mom, the words falling from his lips softer than any other admission, her reaction wasn't what he'd expected.

He'd expected an explosion, a flurry of "you're too young" and "we taught you better" and "how could you?".

But instead, she asked for Aubrey's parents' number. She walked into the other room to call them, and then, when she came back, she asked, "What do you plan on doing?"

He stared up at her, a little bit too gone to really think hard about the matter. She sighed, then said, "You're fifteen. Are you going to drop out of school, get a job, help the poor girl out? Or are you going to be a selfish dick and leave her?"

"She doesn't wanna keep it. She wants to get rid of it," he managed to stammer out, picking at a loose thread on his coat.

"Her parents aren't going to let her. Punishment, I guess, but gods, that's a horrible one." She sat beside him, that parental discontent still evident.

He'd later chalk it up to being high as balls, but he quickly said, "I'll take it. It's not fair to make her raise it if she doesn't want it. That's the right thing to do, right?"

"It's a baby, Lewis. You don't have to keep calling them 'it'. We'll talk about this in the morning. Get some sleep."

——

True to his word, when the baby was born and released from the hospital, he came home with Lewis.

There was a tense silence between mother and son, only broken when they got home and she turned in her seat to softly ask, "Did that girl really try to name him Squirrel?"

Lewis nodded as he attempted to free the baby from the car seat. His mother quickly stopped him, then patiently told him how to unfasten the seat from the base.

Hours later, when Persephone went to check up on Lewis for what felt like the hundredth time, she found him sitting next to the crib in his room, baby Sorrel in his arms as he rambled on. "...I'm a really bad person sometimes but I wanna try to get better, 'cuz I don't want you to turn out like those assholes. And I want you to be proud of me when you're older too—"

He broke off when he noticed his mother walking in. She sat beside him and wrapped an arm around his shoulders, leaning in to get a good look at her grandson. "We'll do whatever we have to do, buttercup. Now... let me have the baby."

"We can't hold him all the time," he reminded her, but still handed him over. "I'm gonna go see if there's any pizza in the fridge, then I'm probably gonna take a nap. When you're done holding him, just... put him in the crib, okay?"

——

Less than a month later, they moved. It was deemed essential to Lewis' recovery, and for once, he didn't complain.

One condition of the move was that Lewis got a fresh start. For all intents and purposes related to school, Sorrel was Lewis' little brother. He didn't necessarily like the plan, but... He'd started listening to his mom more, letting her make decisions instead of making stupid ones for himself.

Things were super calm for that first year. It wasn't until Lewis was starting his senior year of school that life got weird again.

A couple weeks into the school year, he managed to make a friend.

That friend was the sunshine in the garden of Lewis' life. Logan started coming over all the time, and as their paths converged more and more, Lewis found himself torn between keeping his cover or telling the truth.

Finally, though, he had to come clean.

His mom left the baby with him one evening when Logan was supposed to come over, wishing him luck and giving both her son and grandson a kiss on the forehead before taking off.

Logan arrived not too long after, wearing the dumb sun-themed shirt Lewis gave him for Christmas. It brought a smile to his face, one that only widened when Sorrel fought to get to Logan as soon as the teen came into the room.

Logan obviously scooped up the child, an overly wide grin on his lips as he held Sorrel up in the air. He also had a little conversation with the baby, all before he even said hello to his friend.

"I've been debating on how to tell you this for a really long time, and... I'm just gonna say it. That's my baby. Not my brother. I'll even get his birth certificate if you don't believe me."

———
[ i wrote most of this a month ago and i've had no inspiration recently so,,,, here?? happy new year